Human Services Board requests $10M per year for Affrdable Housing

Double down on the mayor’s efforts!

From: Heidi Wegleitner
Date: September 24, 2014 at 10:33:23 AM CDT
To: “parisi@countyofdane.com” , “Kostelic, Jeffrey”
Cc: “Edward Murray (Emurray8899@sbcglobal.net)” , “Krause, Dorothy” , “Ritt, Michele” , Karen Vieth , Barbara McKinney , “pmcpartland tds.net” , “Corrigan, Sharon” , “Levin, Jeremy” , “Kozak, Julie”
Subject: HSB County Capital Budget Recommendation for Affordable Housing

Dear County Executive Parisi,

Yesterday Ed Murray, the other Human Services Board Co-Chair, and I met with Jeff Kostelic regarding the attached recommendation of the Human Services Board. Also attached is the Affordable Housing Needs Assessment, Dane County and Municipalities and Res. 292, 2011-2012, Dane County Recognizes Housing as a Human Right. Here is a link to the City of Madison’s recent Housing Strategy Report, as well. https://dane.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=3199296&GUID=89159A79-6211-4095-AEE2-ED1D7B6F6F75

Further, the Capital Times published a timely editorial today in support of Mayor Soglin’s initiative. http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/editorial/mayor-soglin-s-housing-initiative-bold-and-necessary/article_84f6132b-0537-51e4-b24e-f5658200d77d.html We think the County should double down on his initiative as indicated in the attached memo.

We look forward to your response.

Thank you for your consideration,

To: Dane County Executive Joseph Parisi
CC: Sup. Dorothy Krause, Barbara McKinney, Pat McPartland, Sup. Michelle Ritt,
Karen Vieth, County Board Chair Corrigan, HHN Chair Levin
From: Human Services Board – Edward Murray & Heidi Wegleitner, Co-Chairs
Date: 9/25/2014
Re: Funding Request for Affordable Housing Initiatives

Dear County Executive Parisi:

Thank you for your recent commitments to low income housing and services for homeless persons in Dane County. We commend your support for new initiatives in the 2013 and 2014 County Budgets, including the Rethke supportive housing project, the MCC transitional living program for homeless young adults, the DAIS shelter, the Dane County Housing Authority’s rental housing for section 8 voucher holders, and funding commitments for day resource services. We also appreciate your efforts to expand early childhood programs, including the successful Leopold Early Childhood Zone. We believe these are key in the fight to end poverty.

Dane County Resolution 292, 2011-2012, Dane County Recognizes Housing as a Human Right, charged the Human Services Board with steering efforts to develop a plan to realize the right to housing for all Dane County residents. Some of the benchmarks for the plan include reducing the number of homeless school kids by 50%, creating 100 single room occupancy (SRO) units and 100 units affordable to persons supporting themselves on SSI or W-2 by September 1, 2015, ensuring no one is denied access from shelter, and providing additional daytime shelter space in the downtown area. We have attached the resolution for your convenience.

Due to limited staff capacity and changes in board composition, we have not yet completed our housing plan. We have, however, received important data necessary to the planning process. With some support and direction from DCPD Senior Planner Olivia Parry, Kurt Paulsen, PhD, AICP, UW Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, prepared the attached Affordable Housing Needs Assessment, Dane County and Municipalities, for the Dane County Departments of Planning and Development and Human Services. One of the conclusions of the report is that Dane County needs to create approximately 1000 affordable housing units per year for the next 26 years to meet our needs. See p. 54. This is undoubtedly a daunting challenge, but one that we believe we can and must meet with the cooperation of other municipalities and funding from state, federal, local and private sources. We believe Mayor Soglin’s $20 Million ($5M per year over the next 4 years) capital budget initiative for affordable housing responds to a growing demand from Dane County residents to reduce homelessness. Under the Mayor’s plan, this funding would be leveraged with other sources by private developers to create 250 units per year — one-fourth of what our report tells us we need.

At our September 18, 2014, meeting, the Human Services Board approved a motion to recommend your office make a $10M per year commitment in your capital budget for affordable housing initiatives. We also encourage other municipalities to add funding for affordable housing initiatives. We can continue to partner with other local governments like the City of Madison, non-profit homeless services and job-training providers (like Operation Fresh Start and WRTP Big Step), labor organizations, and private developers to create the affordable housing we need to support our most vulnerable community members. As you are aware, affordable housing development is best pursued with multiple layers of financing, including low-income tax credits. We can leverage this funding with private commitments to maximize and align with other State and Federal dollars flowing to the Dane County Housing Authority and for CDBG and HOME programs. County staff is already exploring Medical Assistance as a funding source to provide supportive services to low-income housing residents and coordinating meetings with economic development staff with other municipalities regarding affordable housing needs. Gap financing from the county could be very helpful to getting new projects off the ground and ensuring access to affordable units throughout Dane County.

We would love to meet with you further to discuss our budget recommendation and planning efforts. Thank you for considering our request.